The snack food industry is highly innovative. A variety of methods are known in the art for preparing snack foods such as potato chips, pretzels, crackers, and the like. For example, conventional potato chips are prepared by the basic steps of peeling and slicing raw potatoes, washing the raw potato slices to remove surface starches, and frying the potato slices in hot oil until a desired moisture content and crispness is achieved. The fried potato slices are then salted or seasoned and packaged for sale to a consumer.
Heretofore, snack foods have generally been pre-seasoned prior to packaging and sale to the consumer. The consumer has not had an opportunity to customize the flavoring of the snack to the consumer's specific tastes. It is also known that snack foods consumed warm and fresh immediately after production have a unique savory flavor that the consumer enjoys. In fact, the consumption of warm and fresh snack foods is often a highlight when one tours through a production facility in the snack food industry.
There is a continuing need for a method, kit, and container for preparing heated and flavored snack foods. Desirably, the method, kit, and container permit a consumer to customize seasoning of the snack food, and create a unique experience by which the consumer can recreate or simulate a taste of the snack food when provided warm and fresh immediately after production.